Alpine Type S Component too quiet.

As a disclaimer, this is my first time working on automotive audio so i do apologize if the questions sound silly.

I recently went ahead and replaced all four speakrs in my car with Alpines. I replaced the rear with the Alpine SPS-610 coaxials which right now sound great and i replaced the front ones with Alpine SPS-610C Components.

All of the four including tweeters are being powered by a Sony GT740UI headunit.

Now the problem that i have is that my rear Alpines sound great in either low or high volume however the front Components are too quiet and sound very distorted.

I used to have "walmart bought" sony coaxials speakers in the front which sounded louder. Also who ever had the car before me did an audio setup using pioneer crossovers.

My question here is, do i need an amp (by doing a quick search im assuming a 2-Channel Amp for the fronts) to deliver more power to those speakers or possibly bass blockers? Listed below is a little information about the setup.

Head Unit:

Sony GT740UI

RMS Power Output: 17 Watts

Peak Output: 52 Watts

Speakers:

Alpine SPS-610C component (these sound distorted)

RMS: Two 80 Watts

Peak: 240 Watts

Alpine SPS-610 coaxial (these sound great)

RMS: Two 75 Watts

Peak: 230 Watts

Any help would be great, thanks

-Syed

You have posted to a forum that requires a moderator to approve posts before they are publicly available.

Hopefully, the 'audio setup using pioneer crossovers' has been removed.

Forget 'peak' output or input.

The 17 watts RMS from the Sony head would work fine with some more efficient speakers made for low power applications. Your Alpine speakers are less efficient and made for the poser from an outboard type amp.

Part of the probelm you are having now could be due to factory wiring and possibly a stock amp or crossover in the system, if you have everything installed using wiring harness adaptors only.

I recommend at least a 4x75 watts RMS amp. A 4x100 would work also.

Your Sony head has RCA preamp outputs for the front and rear connections to a 4 channel amp and also has highpass settings to keep the extremely low bass out of your full range speakers.

GLH

I'm not sure on this - I could understand the more-efficient Sony speakers sounding louder, but I wouldn't really expect a 75W Alpine to sound better than an 80W RMS Alpine - both are 88 dB sensitivity - there just isn't that much difference there.

You might want to make sure the wiring to both speakers is a direct connection and go from there.

The Alpine component speakers have their own crossover that you should be using, and the rear Alpine coaxials don't need a crosssover. Wire the speakers directly from the head WITHOUT THE PIONEER CROSSOVERS and see if they sound better.

GLH

You have posted to a forum that requires a moderator to approve posts before they are publicly available.

Hopefully, the 'audio setup using pioneer crossovers' has been removed.

Forget 'peak' output or input.

The 17 watts RMS from the Sony head would work fine with some more efficient speakers made for low power applications. Your Alpine speakers are less efficient and made for the poser from an outboard type amp.

Part of the probelm you are having now could be due to factory wiring and possibly a stock amp or crossover in the system, if you have everything installed using wiring harness adaptors only.

I recommend at least a 4x75 watts RMS amp. A 4x100 would work also.

Your Sony head has RCA preamp outputs for the front and rear connections to a 4 channel amp and also has highpass settings to keep the extremely low bass out of your full range speakers.

GLH

I'm not sure on this - I could understand the more-efficient Sony speakers sounding louder, but I wouldn't really expect a 75W Alpine to sound better than an 80W RMS Alpine - both are 88 dB sensitivity - there just isn't that much difference there.

You might want to make sure the wiring to both speakers is a direct connection and go from there.

Hopefully, the 'audio setup using pioneer crossovers' has been removed.

Forget 'peak' output or input.

The 17 watts RMS from the Sony head would work fine with some more efficient speakers made for low power applications. Your Alpine speakers are less efficient and made for the poser from an outboard type amp.

Part of the probelm you are having now could be due to factory wiring and possibly a stock amp or crossover in the system, if you have everything installed using wiring harness adaptors only.

I recommend at least a 4x75 watts RMS amp. A 4x100 would work also.

Your Sony head has RCA preamp outputs for the front and rear connections to a 4 channel amp and also has highpass settings to keep the extremely low bass out of your full range speakers.

thanks GLH for your insight, currently i have the pionner crossovers in place i figured i could run through them, but seeing that i do need an amp i will go ahead and replace them leaning towards the sound ordanance amp, now as far as crossovers go, i know they are passive crossovers, are there specific ones that i should look for or is it more of a universial one that i could pick up and just plug and play with, thanks.

You have posted to a forum that requires a moderator to approve posts before they are publicly available.

I'm not sure on this - I could understand the more-efficient Sony speakers sounding louder, but I wouldn't really expect a 75W Alpine to sound better than an 80W RMS Alpine - both are 88 dB sensitivity - there just isn't that much difference there.

You might want to make sure the wiring to both speakers is a direct connection and go from there.

Hope This Helps!!!

Anyone else have suggestions?

Thanks TigerHeli, i guess i should have rephrased the statement, by using the sony speakrs i can listen to music but in no way are they designed to be used for heavy amounts of music, i can listen but as they get louder they start to distort, now as far as the rear speakers go, i did put in my components to the rear terminals and the speakers sounded the same way, low and distorted, unlike the coaxial alpines which i have in the rear which sound great, im assuming either the components need more power, there is a wiring issue, or i just received a bad set of speakers.

You have posted to a forum that requires a moderator to approve posts before they are publicly available.

i haven't yet, i'll try to go ahead and do a test to see the diffrence, but yes they had roughly the same play time as the coaxials. i'm leaning to the fact that maybe i should just do a complete re-wire of the front's along with an amp.

You have posted to a forum that requires a moderator to approve posts before they are publicly available.

The Alpine component speakers have their own crossover that you should be using, and the rear Alpine coaxials don't need a crosssover. Wire the speakers directly from the head WITHOUT THE PIONEER CROSSOVERS and see if they sound better.

GLH

You have posted to a forum that requires a moderator to approve posts before they are publicly available.

The problem like both of you stated was with the wiring and the crossovers, i didn't realize that behind the woofer there were two sets of terminals, one for the headunit and other going from the woofer to the tweeter using the included in-line cross over.

So i went ahead and removed everything and used new wiring going directly from the head unit to the alpines and it sounds much better, however over time as the break-in they should sound even better, thanks again for your help guys.

[edited by: Syed-A at 12:33 PM (GMT -5) on Sun, Apr 15 2012]

You have posted to a forum that requires a moderator to approve posts before they are publicly available.

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